The sanitary crisis has altered people’s habits all over the world, especially in terms of consumption. In an attempt to promote social distancing and raise a sense of individual responsibility linked to the COVID-19 health crisis, consumers have found e-commerce to be a soothing alternative to going to shops. According to The Federation of e-commerce and distance-selling (FEVAD), in France, online sales for products and services for 2020 reached 112.2 billion euros (€), an 8.5% increase compared to the previous year. The recent health crisis has had a significant impact on global online sales in the last few months. But with the quarantine lifted and physical stores gradually reopened across Europe, it’s fair to ask if the e-commerce boom will continue.
Many e-merchants are developing a customer-centric approach and putting clients at the core of their strategy to retain this newly acquired customer base. According to a Walker study, customer experience is the key brand differentiation factor overtaking price and product. Providing an incredible customer experience is key to building customer loyalty. Here are four tips to help you out:
Support throughout the customer journey
Consumers can achieve a better shopping experience if e-merchants provide careful and fluid assistance during the purchasing journey. Just like an in-shop experience, guiding your customers during their visit and making information easily accessible is necessary to build trust with your visitors. Having consistent support throughout the customer journey will help you maintain a strong relationship with customers.
Personalization in every step of the process
Personalization is a great way to maintain a positive relationship with customers and to create a closer bond. You can use support automation tools to create a better customer experience and provide better personalization for your visitors. However, make sure to maintain a certain balance with human interactions. A hybrid chatbot is the perfect solution to ally between automated customer service, human interaction, and personalization.
Consistency is key
To build a strong relationship with your customer base, you must ensure a high level of consistency. Consistency means operating at the same level of standards in every stage of the customer lifetime journey. This will help you set the right goals with your team and differentiate you from your competitors eventually. Having a virtual agent to automate answers to frequent and time-consuming questions through all the purchasing journey is a great way to build consistency.
Touchpoints with your audience
Keeping in contact with your customers after their order and delivery of their goods is critical to maintaining a close relationship with them. You can set up a newsletter and send them quality content. You can also add a coupon to encourage them to purchase your latest product. There are many creative ways to stay in touch with your audience. For example, My Little Box used its virtual agent to set up a giveaway contest during the Christmas season.
Conclusion
If you are an e-commerce website owner and have not yet automated your support, now is the right time to implement this solution to improve your customer experience. With an omnichannel strategy coupled with support automation, e-merchants have every opportunity to improve their service, and therefore their relationship with customers. By using multiple channels and communicating with customers wherever they are, e-merchants can create a positive image of their brand which in turn enables them to get genuine feedback from their customers/shoppers which can also be seen and reviewed by the potential shoppers. As a result, customers receive an accurate response and have a good experience, and e-merchants increase their customer knowledge, save time due to support automation, and reduce costs while creating customer loyalty.